I agree with the direction of all of the changes the author made. I probably would have reduced the output of the tweeter in the crossover region even more that he did, to partially offset its excess off-axis energy at the bottom end of its passband.Yes. B&W must have made a silly mistake and overlooked that.
Speaker Analysis for Armchair Critics
Hello everyone,
There’s a very important discipline called "Speaker Analysis" or "Speaker Testing" which though complicated, is brilliantly illustrated in this breakdown of the B&W 685.
http://www.audioexcite.com/?page_id=6070
Speaker analysis is to measure each of the components both separately and as they come together in a complete system. It is a part of creating a new loudspeaker, but it can also be used to analyze an existing speaker, to understand it and perhaps to make it better. I prefer the term Analysis because it better reflects that the goal is not merely quality assurance, but to build a complete electro acoustical understanding of the system as a whole so changes can be considered, and their final results predicted.
This particular article does just that, and comes up with a couple of suggestions for re-working the crossover to end up with hopefully a better end result. At the very least, it is a significantly different speaker at the end, and achieves a far greater level of change than cables can.
I share this with all of you just as an example of the work that goes into making a loudspeaker from parts, and the tools, and how much of what we hear has to do with choices made in the crossover.
Best,
Erik
There’s a very important discipline called "Speaker Analysis" or "Speaker Testing" which though complicated, is brilliantly illustrated in this breakdown of the B&W 685.
http://www.audioexcite.com/?page_id=6070
Speaker analysis is to measure each of the components both separately and as they come together in a complete system. It is a part of creating a new loudspeaker, but it can also be used to analyze an existing speaker, to understand it and perhaps to make it better. I prefer the term Analysis because it better reflects that the goal is not merely quality assurance, but to build a complete electro acoustical understanding of the system as a whole so changes can be considered, and their final results predicted.
This particular article does just that, and comes up with a couple of suggestions for re-working the crossover to end up with hopefully a better end result. At the very least, it is a significantly different speaker at the end, and achieves a far greater level of change than cables can.
I share this with all of you just as an example of the work that goes into making a loudspeaker from parts, and the tools, and how much of what we hear has to do with choices made in the crossover.
Best,
Erik